The present invention generally relates to boardgames and in particular to nutrition and fitness education boardgames.
A dieting game board apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,628 to Pope which emphasizes positive and negative steps for dieting. The Pope game board apparatus includes chance generating means, a plurality of playing pieces representing a dieter, weight recording means for each dieter which functions as a scoring device, a playing board having a plurality of playing spaces in substantially contiguous relationship defining a playing path, a first plurality of spaces indicating a weight gain, and a second plurality of spaces indicating a weight loss. A second embodiment of the dieting game board apparatus of the Pope invention further includes a supply of game money, a plurality of weight cards having player directives, at least one space where weight can be lost for payment of money, at least one space where weight can be gained for payment of money, and at least one space indicating that a player is to follow the directives of a weight card. Players move their playing pieces along the playing path for the number spaces indicated by the chance generating means and mark the weight recording means in turn. The winner is the first player to reduce his/her weight to zero, or in the second embodiment, the first player to lose twenty-five pounds.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,117 to Kuna a boardgame designed around the theme of gaining and losing weight and counting calories is disclosed. The Kuna boardgame includes a game board having a plurality of stations defining a travel path, hollow playing pieces, a plurality of weight elements receivable within the hollow playing pieces as representations of calories, chance means which determine the number of stations traversed on a turn and the number of weight elements added to a playing piece, scale means for comparing the weight of opposing playing pieces, and second chance means to provide random gains or losses of calories. The object of the game is to finish with the least number of accumulated calories.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,840 to Curtiss discloses a weight control game apparatus which emphasizes the relationship between food consumption and exercise in weight control. The Curtiss game apparatus includes a gameboard for each player which has a calories gain path and a calories loss path. Chance card means determine which path a player moves along for a number of spaces based on a roll of dice. The player having lost the greatest amount of calories or gained the least amount of calories is the winner.
A nutrition education game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,721 to McKay. The McKay game includes playing pieces, chance-determining means, a gameboard having a plurality of spaces defining a playing path, each space having an indicia of a nutritional feature associated with different types of food marked thereon, for example a low salt content side dish, a plurality of cards identifying a food and a value for a particular nutritional feature associated with that food, and a score card to tally the amount of a nutritional features accumulated. The player accumulating the most nutritional score, for example the lowest total salt content, is the winner.
From the foregoing it can be seen that the diet and nutrition education boardgames of the prior art have the winning results determined by chance. In addition to chance means determining the number of spaces that a playing piece traverses, in the Pope boardgame randomly-selected weight cards determine a player's fate; in the Kuna boardgame the chance means also determine the caloric intake of a player; in the Curtiss game apparatus chance cards determine whether a player proceeds along a calories gain path or along a calories loss path; and in the McKay game randomly-selected cards for a food and its nutritional value determine the accumulated nutritional score. Also, in the prior art diet and nutrition education boardgames reward is delayed until the end of the game. Interim rewards as incentives are preferred if the knowledge and principles are to be applied to real life situations.